Wells, Julian wrote:
> James writes:
>
> ' the Fed Funds Rate ... varies on a daily or weekly basis.  ....  The word "control" should mean keeping the value at a rate the Fed chooses.'
>
> He must be disappointed in the way his central heating thermostat performs.
>
> Julian

I'm quite satisfied with the way my central heating thermostat 
performs.   I set the cooling system to start when the temperature rises 
above 78 degrees (while I'm home) in the summer.  Otherwise, the 
temperature is what the weather "dictates."  The Fed Funds rate is a 
market rate, determined by the supply and demand for credit on the 
overnight market -- trading in repurchase agreements.  The Fed says it 
targets the rate at between 0.0% and 0.25%.  The rates since the end of 
December 2008 and end of September 2015 have varied between a high of 
0.22%  (February 2009) and a low of 0.07% (end of July, October, 
December 2011; and end of January and February 2014).  Since end of July 
2014 the rate has risen from 0.09% to 0.14% on September 11, 2015 It was 
0.13% the previous Friday). Julian wants to call such variations the 
Fed's *controlling* of rates?

James Ahiakpor

-- 
James C.W. Ahiakpor, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Economics
California State University, East Bay
Hayward, CA 94542
510-885-3137
510-885-7175 (Fax; Not Private)